I've Just Seen David Bowie's V&A exhibition

In the new retrospective exhibition David Bowie is, the V&A has provided a
grand stage for an inspirational artist, says Sarah Crompton.

The mystery of David Bowie, the confidence that inspired a quiet boy from Bromley to become one of the most significant artists of his generation, hangs quietly over this entire show. But there is a tiny clue to it when he confesses that he was always reading books that were “far above my head” – because he liked to tuck them in his pocket on the commuter train from Bromley to his job in an advertising agency in central London, so he would “look deep” to his fellow travellers.

The V&A exhibition feels full of love. Its exhibits are displayed with great verve and a kind of passion, as if everyone involved didn’t want to let their elusive subject down. It was planned long before anyone had any idea that Bowie was about to release anew album at the age of 66 – though exhibits from The Next Day, including the disturbing two-headed puppet that featured in the video of “Where are We Now?” have been quickly incorporated.

With full access to the David Bowie Archive (where he clearly kept more or less everything from about 1972 onwards) and the ability to supplement from its own collection and occasional borrowings, the exhibition successfully makes you feel you have entered the creative mind of an astonishing cultural icon, a figure whose influence and significance far exceeds his notional role as rock god.

All the exhibits, presented using cutting edge technology by – among others – the team behind the video projection at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, add to that sense of a fertile intelligence, changing constantly, shaping the world.

Brian Eno's portable Synth in 'David Bowie is' at the V&A

Screens showing live performances at 'David Bowie is'

Then, in the final room, you encounter the apotheosis of Bowie, the musician. On huge screens, five times life sized, lost film of legendary performances plays, with the costumes that he wore glittering through the gauze. There’s some unseen footage with Kemp, lost passages from the Diamond Dogs tour, the famous DA Pennebaker film of Ziggy’s final farewell. And, from three moments of his career, three versions of “Heroes”, which you can listen to simultaneously; as you walk round the installation the soundtrack in your ears changes.